During a privacy trial, Sir Elton John revealed that his publicist had provided newspapers with inaccurate information. The iconic musician, now 78, clarified that reports suggesting he canceled tour dates due to hospitalization for an E.coli infection and flu were false.
Legal representatives for Sir Elton argue that the Daily Mail article containing his medical details was unlawfully sourced. They allege that journalists engaged in voicemail hacking, landline tapping, and dishonest methods to acquire his information.
The publication refutes these allegations, asserting that the 2009 report was based on legitimate sources. They claim it drew from a statement on Sir Elton’s official website and remarks by his then-spokesman, Gary Farrow.
Testifying in the High Court in London, Sir Elton suggested that his own website and publicist had inaccurately reported his health issues as E.coli and flu.
His website had indicated he was battling E.coli and flu, while Mr. Farrow had been quoted in a Press Association report affirming that the singer was suffering from the flu.
The website said he had E.coli and flu, and Mr Farrow was quoted in a Press Association news agency report saying the singer had flu.
Sir Elton responded: ‘I didn’t have a bacterial infection, so Mr Farrow got it completely wrong.’
Sir Elton John, who gave evidence to the High Court via video link from an undisclosed location
He accused a lawyer representing the Mail of ‘clutching at straws’, saying: ‘Mr Farrow’s information was wrong. I was in King George’s Hospital with prostatitis, I was very, very ill.’
He went on: ‘It’s not true what the Mail wrote, they may have taken something from our website, saying I had to postpone my tour, but they were assuming that I had something that I didn’t have, and actually I had something far more serious.’
Sir Elton is one of seven public figures including Prince Harry and Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, who are taking legal action against the Daily Mail and The Mail On Sunday over claims the newspapers obtained information unlawfully.
Associated Newspapers, which publishes both titles, denies its journalists hacked voicemails, tapped landlines or ‘blagged’ their private information.
Sir Elton and his husband David Furnish, 63, are taking action over ten articles which they claim used unlawful information.
In a 2015 report, The Mail On Sunday said Sir Elton was rushed to hospital in Monaco after his leg swelled during a tennis game.
The singer said it was ‘inaccurate’, saying he was taken to hospital with a ‘terrible infection in one of my glutes, which was caused by a very bad [vitamin] B12 injection on tour’.
He was shown a series of emails between the TMOS journalist and his former PR manager Mr Farrow, in which Mr Farrow confirmed information to the journalist.
Sir Elton appeared to scoff as he exclaimed: ‘The wonderful Mr Farrow, yes.’
He went on: ‘That’s why Mr Farrow no longer works for us.’
Sir Elton and Mr Farrow worked together for several decades and the singer was reportedly best man at Mr Farrow’s wedding in 2002, and godfather to his eldest daughter.
But Mr Farrow announced he had resigned in 2015, blaming ‘contractual, media, and PR directional differences between Elton’s new management and myself’.
During cross-examination questions from Catrin Evans KC, for Associated Newspapers, Sir Elton declined to answer why he and Mr Farrow parted ways, saying it was ‘private’.
He questioned why he was being asked about his visits to hospital, saying: ‘The case we’re bringing against Associated Newspapers contains the most horrendous things in the world that you could ever suffer from a privacy point of view, and you’re concentrating on my trip to the hospital with an infected glute? Surely you have some more questions to ask me about the real meat of this case?’
Sir Elton, who wore a pleated green designer jacket, blue shirt, patterned tie and black-rimmed glasses, gave his evidence from an undisclosed location after his lawyers asked the court for permission.
He thanked the judge and blamed ‘the inconvenience of my eyesight’, saying it would have been ‘very difficult’ for him to attend court.
In a written witness statement, he accused Associated Newspapers of ‘evil acts’ which were ‘abhorrent and outside even the most basic standards of human decency’.
He said: ‘I have devoted my life to my music but this does not mean deeply personal things which I have a right to deal with in private are fair game.’
He went on: ‘The British press operates under a voluntary code of practice, not a binding legal framework.
‘If they cannot abide even by those voluntary standards – and clearly, they cannot – then legal action is the only way forward.’
The case continues.
